2 chicken thighs
12 medium asparagus spears
3 tbsp peanut or corn oil
1 marinade:
1 tbsp dry sherry
1 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp thin soy sauce
1 pinch sugar
1 sauce:
2 tsp fermented black beans
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp black soy sauce
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 cornstarch paste as thickener
Directions
Marinating: With sharp paring knife, scrape chicken meat from thigh;
slice into thin strips across the grain. (Breast meat is not
preferred for this dish, as meat is too dry and spongy.) Combine
sherry, soy, cornstarch and sugar in bowl; massage liquid into meat
with your fingers. Marinate for 15 to
30 minutes. Preparation: Wash asparagus; peel tough white
outer skin off ends; slice on diagonal in 2 1/2" sections. Rinse
fermented black beans. In bowl, combine and mash black beans and
garlic, brown sugar, black soy sauce and chicken stock; stir; reserve
for 15 minutes. Stir-Frying: Add 2/3 of oil to hot wok; when oil is
very hot, add chicken. Stir-fry for about 3 minutes on high heat - or
until chicken begins to shrink and firm up. Remove chicken to
holding bowl. Reheat wok to high, add remaining oil. When oil is hot,
add black bean sauce. Stir-fry for 1 minute. Add asparagus; mix with
sauce. Stir sauce with asparagus. When sauce boils, add cooked
chicken; toss to combine. Dribble in a little cornstarch paste if
needed; cornstarch in chicken marinade might be enough. Toss
ingredients until very little liquid remains and is reduced to glaze.
Dish is ready when asparagus brightens. If you still have too much
liquid, remove ingredients, continue to reduce sauce, then return
ingredients to coat them with sauce. Serve in individual portions.
Servings: 6 servings
Asparagus & Chicken In Black Bean Sauce Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bean; Chicken; Poultry; Sauce; Vegetable
The History of Recipes
Recipes as a concept can be tracked way back into the distant past, in truth as far into history as pharonic Egypt, and potentially, even further back. However, generally, these early recipes were just very simple pictorial recipes for food preparation.
In an interesting twist, the most ancient recipe discovered, according to food historians are a few clay tablets in the Sumerian language which recount the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made people feel wonderful and blissful. Much later, in Roman times a man called Apicius assembled a collection of scripts which described recipes enjoyed by his fellow Romans. In his publication, he recounts how the meals of wealthy Romans were split into starters, entrees and dessert, something that is very familiar to us today. Aspicius tells us how the early Romans made use of a good variety of spices, including a few that will be familiar to modern cooks like thyme, mint and parsley. Later on, in the 15th century, the Crusaders brought back many new foods and spices from the holy lands, including spices like parsley, basil and rosemary. These new foods and spices was responsible for an outbreak in recipe publications, some of which still exist in private collections. When we get to the twentieth century, recipe books are increasing in popularity as a result of better eduction, people having increased spare time and having more money to spend. The TV revolution brought us celebrity chefs and the demand for the accompanying recipe books. And that brings us to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, permitting everybody to search through massive numbers of recipes such as those found on this web site. |
We hope you enjoy this Asparagus & Chicken In Black Bean Sauce recipe.
